


Total Eclipse of the Sea

by the_rck



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena, Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Bisexual Female Character, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Dueling, F/F, Fairy Tale Elements, Gen, Knight Kara Danvers, Magic, Temporary Amnesia, mystical elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 06:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19717990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck
Summary: Kara didn't want to fight the first duel, and she was never sure, after, why she did. She just knew that she was faster than Saionji and stronger. The sun overhead wasn't the yellow that she'd expected, but it wasn't the sun of Krypton, either. She didn't need a sword because she had the cutting edge of loss and the strength of a task chosen. She couldn't quite remember who she was supposed to protect, just that the person wasn't Himemiya Anthy.





	Total Eclipse of the Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VampirePaladin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/gifts).



> I stole the title from a recent xkcd. I thought the unexpectedness fit the Utena-ness.
> 
> Thanks to my beta readers, Karioa, feelingwhimsy, and Gammarad.
> 
> The rating is mostly for Utena canon being Utena canon but also includes consideration of Kara's losses. The choose not to warn is because I'm really not sure about whether or not to call this underage given that nothing happens on screen but that I think some things happened in the major lacuna. I'm not sure how time flows at Ohtori.

Kara didn't want to fight the first duel, and she was never sure, after, why she did. She just knew that she was faster than Saionji and stronger. The sun overhead wasn't the yellow that she'd expected, but it wasn't the sun of Krypton, either. She didn't need a sword because she had the cutting edge of loss and the strength of a task chosen. She couldn't quite remember who she was supposed to protect, just that the person wasn't Himemiya Anthy.

Anthy reminded Kara of all of the people who had accepted that Krypton would die and then... let it happen. Saionji, on the other hand, reminded Kara of the people who had denied that it would. She couldn't change the past so she changed what she could. She twisted aside, dodging the sharpened steel he aimed at her rose, and snatched his from his buttonhole.

Saionji had laughed when Kara showed up with no visible weapon. Then he'd drawn a sword from Anthy's chest.

Kara had stared for a few seconds because, when forged correctly, soul-steel could kill gods. The House of El remembered. Then she'd laughed because it was all impossible. "Brittle," she'd said as she set her body at readiness to move.

"Our minds and hearts are weapons," Kara told Saionji, after the fight, as he stared at her in disbelief. She didn't like the idea that the boy was willing to aim soul-steel at a mortal. She frowned.

Perhaps this was a dream? She thought her uncle had said something about strange dreams. 

She didn't remember her uncle's name. She didn't remember arriving at Ohtori, and she didn't like the food or the shapes of the buildings or the textures of the clothing. The air smelled tainted, and all of the names sounded wrong.

Then Anthy smiled and took Kara's arm. Anthy offered Saionji an indifferent face and words that severed accepted bonds.

Kara staggered a little as Anthy's skin touched hers. It was a settling connection as Anthy's power reached for Kara's soul. Kara did the only thing she could by reaching back.

Reciprocity. Even if everyone else had, the House of El had not forgotten.

Anthy flinched.

Kara turned to look at Anthy fully. 

They both ignored Saionji.

"You _made_ it brittle," Kara said accusingly. "Why?"

Anthy blinked as if Kara's words made no sense. "There's no room," she replied. "I can only hold one thing." Anthy didn't look much older than Kara, but her voice sounded ancient and a little desperate. "I'm not enough, but I'm all there is."

The castle above them cracked, showing darkness with a few flickers of light. The platform on which they stood shook and rattled as if trying to break itself and to hurl them off. Saionji had vanished.

Kara wonder if Saionji had ever actually been there. She watched as the gaps in the castle widened. "I know what you are," she told Anthy. It was only sort of a lie; she could feel the answer in her mind, starting to grow the way a seed did when the season was finally right.

"I'm the Witch," Anthy said flatly. "I'm also the Rose-Bride. I have to fix what the Witch broke."

"Some things can't be fixed."

"I have time." Anthy's hair came loose and became wind. "I have you. Human flotsam, just like all of the others. When you fail, there will be another. Always."

Kara inhaled and tried to ground herself. Except that-- Oh. "I have a destination," she said. "I have a task." She ransacked her memory, looking for the right words. "There's a time," she said, "when the only thing left to fight for is death and ashes." Her favorite aunt had told her that. "Can you restore the dead? Can you _make_ someone be happy? Really do those things, I mean. No fakes. No echoes. No compulsions." She didn't understand why she was meeting a god while she ought to be hurtling through space toward Earth.

None of this felt like a dream any longer, but now, she really hoped that it was.

"You came here," Anthy said, as if that meant something important. "To fight for me, so that I can save--"

Kara was almost certain that Anthy knew that whoever or whatever it was couldn't be saved. The other girl-- the goddess-- simply had nothing else. Kara had-- Kara had-- She had a baby cousin. Kal was half of the hope of the House of El. Kara was the other half.

If something happened to Kal on the trip, Kara would mourn because he was a sweet child. She'd just still go on because clinging to death and ashes wouldn't save anyone. "Sometimes, you can only save yourself and your memories of what's lost." She would light a candle watch it burn until it guttered out. Then she'd say the prayers for the dead. Even if Kal someday joined her in recitation, they'd be two remembering billions.

"You shouldn't have to bear that." Anthy's voice went soft and cajoling. "You can be my champion, my protector, my knight." She cleared her throat. "My betrothed." The last two words held deep promise of power and union.

Anthy's soul, touching Kara's, said, _Help me. Loan me hope._

Part of Kara ached to agree. "I don't have a lot of time," she said. 

"It won't take longer," Anthy promised. "Fail or succeed, you've spent your time already. You lost it coming here. You will lose it leaving. Not a second passes while you're here." Anthy shifted her grip on Kara's arm, keeping their skin touching, until she could entwine their fingers. "I can make you forget."

Kara shook her head. "I need to know who I am."

Then, the girl and the goddess embraced. When they let go of each other, Kara still remembered, and Kara thought that Anthy had allowed her to say no to that much.

After the duel called Revolution, after the shattering of their shared world, Kara forgot everything but the faintest whisper of, "We'll find each other again, later. When you're ready." If she felt lost and alone, it was because she'd lost Krypton and her parents, and her friends. The food was wrong. The sun was wrong. The language was wrong.

If the scent of roses made her daydream, if the scent of the sea made her lonely, if both together made her cry, the losses she remembered were explanation enough. The dreams of kissing a witch in a greenhouse were only dreams.


End file.
